Running through the English press bookmarks I have, I came across this, and learned that in England and Wales they are marking (maybe celebrating, too) the 40th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

...The lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community make an enormous contribution to the life of the capital, adding to its economic, cultural and social success. I am proud that my administration has been able to effect real change in tackling homophobia and promoting equality for LGBT people. This includes setting up the UK's first Partnership Register in 2001, which paved the way for the 2004 Civil Partnership Act; successfully lobbying for new anti-discrimination laws to protect the LGBT community; high profile projects targeting anti-homophobic bullying in London schools; and banning ads for holiday resorts that discriminated against lesbian and gay people, forcing them to change their policies.

I am determined that London continues to lead the way for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans equality. This year I published the most comprehensive action plan on sexual orientation equality produced in the public sector. However, we also need continued vigilance to tackle inequality and discrimination. This means ongoing work with the police to combat homophobic hate crime and discrimination in the capital and working closely with campaigning organisations such as Stonewall as well as community groups representing London’s diverse LGBT community. ...

Hear hear- what a glorious day for the world when in 1967 these types of events were happening. That was after all the summer of love when conscoiusness expansion was at its peak. It seemed to herald new things and new ideas of cultural growth were real possibilities. Truths will eventually win out over the myriad of lies we adhere so readily to.

But of course the greatest threat to world war was a concertred effort of peace and love, so the 60's were forgotten and demonized as quickly as possible. The powers that be have a way to make events follow their script!

It was the APA in America in the DSM 1 that classified homosexuality as a mental disorder and that wasn't repealed until the 1970's so blame psychoology for validating this as a problem that the person brings upon themselves.

"Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) ... By asking me if I can help, you mean, I suppose, if I can abolish homosexuality and make normal heterosexuality take its place. The answer is, in a general way, we cannot promise to achieve it. In a certain number of cases we succeed in developing the blighted germs of heterosexual tendencies which are present in every homosexual, in the majority of cases it is no more possible."

Several years after Freud's death, however, Sandor Rado's theory of homosexuality would eventually supplant Freud's. In a 1940 article, "A Critical Examination of the Concept of Bisexuality," Rado argued that Freud's theory of bisexuality was based on a faulty 19th century belief in embryonic hermaphroditism, a disproved hypothesis that every embryo had the potential to become an anatomical man or a woman. Since the original theory upon which Freud had based his belief in bisexuality had been disproven, Rado claimed heterosexuality as the only nonpathological outcome of human sexual development.

Rado viewed homosexuality as a phobic avoidance of the other sex caused by parental prohibitions against childhood sexuality. Almost all of the mid-twentieth century psychoanalytic theorists who pathologized homosexuality followed Rado's theory in one form or another. The psychoanalytic shift from Freud's theory of immaturity (homosexuality as a normal developmental step toward adult heterosexuality) to Rado's theory of pathology (homosexuality as a sign of development gone awry) led some analysts to optimistically claim that they could "cure" homosexuality. Analysts whose work was in the tradition of Rado included Irving Bieber, Charles Socarides, Lionel Ovesey, and Lawrence Hatterer.

So Freud seems to have been closer to the truth, but was quickly supplanted by a more acceptable theory that fits peoples feelings and not the facts. This kind of theorizing is very common in human history!

Quote:

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) voted to delete homosexuality from its official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1973. This decision occurred in the context of momentous cultural changes brought on by the social protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, beginning with the civil rights movement, and evolving on to the women's and gay rights movements.......Homosexuality had been officially classified as a mental disorder in the APA's first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-1) in 1952. There it was designated as a "sociopathic personality disturbance." Viewing homosexuality as a mental illness was not controversial at the time as it coincided with prevailing societal attitudes. DSM-II, published in 1968, listed homosexuality as a sexual deviation, but sexual deviations were no longer categorized as a sociopathic personality disturbance.

The publication of DSM-II coincided with explosion of the gay rights movement. The Stonewall riots in 1969 in New York City marked a watershed moment in the movement. Having successfully challenged the police and government attempts to shut down public places where gay people gathered, gay activists would soon challenge psychiatric authority as well.

Before the Stonewall riots, homophile groups had accepted the medical view of homosexuality as a mental disorder. Their view had been that accepting homosexuality as disease meant treating it as a disability, rather than a moral or religious sin, and would lead to more objective and humane attitudes.

The new gay rights activists viewed the medical and psychiatric portrayal of homosexuality as problematic as the religious views. Gay men and women were still being denied many basic rights and the designation of homosexuality as a mental disorder had only exacerbated antihomosexual societal prejudices, leaving gay men and women vulnerable in terms of their physical safety, economic security, and other overall well being.

Gay activists began to confront the APA about its position on homosexuality. There were a series of dramatic encounters between activists and psychiatrists at the annual meetings of the APA between 1970 and 1972. While the opposition to the activists was vehement by some in the APA, there were increasing numbers of psychiatrists (e.g., Judd Marmor) who supported the activists' view.

These were members who were familiar with the research findings showing that homosexuality occurred in large numbers of people, in persons who demonstrated normal psychological adjustment, and that it is present across a range of cultures.

So you can see that taboos seem to drive our subconscious pretty hard and we of course ignore where these things come from as they transfer over to the conscious mind. "Groupthing" mentality that spreads like a bad meme infecting the shallow mind. Kinda proves that the real mental disorder may be in the fact that people who cannot accept changes in their beliefs may have the real mental disorder.

Check out Catherine's signature about people being honestly mistaken.

You can read all about how the DSM 3 was the compromise of the opposition from within the APA and how they resolved it by inventing the terms used from the DSM 2 (Sexual Orientation Disturbance (SOD)) and changing them for the later text (ego-dystonic homosexuality ). It was the work of the openly gay members of the APA that helped bring about the newest conclusions in the DSM 3-R that it is completely normal.

Quote:

The APA Committee agreed with the opponents and the diagnosis of ego-dystonic homosexuality was removed from DSM-III-R (1987).

The "R" stands for Revision.

Homosexuality is not described in DSM 4.

_________________Completely sane world
madness the only freedom

An ability to see both sides of a question
one of the marks of a mature mind